Clint DeBoer said:
Kevlar is certainly "cool" looking but it's not particularly stiff... and you want a loudspeaker driver to be very stiff. I'm not broadbrushing the line or anyone who chooses to use Kevlar, but woven Kevlar, like many other materials, has some issues. I'm sure this point can be argued.
Take aluminum and don't properly coat it - and you get ringing... but if done right it's a very good (and inexpensive) driver material.
And this is why B&W don't use off the shelf material. They create the material exactly the way they need, to give them the right properties to, among other things, counter standing waves.
You can get a
free DVD (from their website,they will send it anywhere in the world free) that has interviews with their engineers(more indepth than whats on their site) where they explain many parts of the speaker design, including the use of the diamond tweeter, Kevlar mid, Rohacell bass, xovers, and cabinet design. I found it very interesting.
cheers
(I dunno if its true, but I heard somewhere that B&W has more scientists than the entire Sony corporation)
